Guest HTT II Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 1 minute ago, r0cafella said: Disagree on the agent point. I’m pretty sure agents have been on the phones none stop. We are a payday/bag holder waiting to happen. And that’s why we are linked with the players we are linked with, the one real contact we had got us Trippier and Wood in. That’s my point, if we had proper contacts with agents and clubs, business would be done more quicker. We don’t have that, so we are no doubt being targeted by agents all over in a scattergun approach to try and get their clients a big pay day and themselves a nice commission, but their clubs are not daft, they want big money too. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HTT II Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Just now, ManDoon said: Wtf happened with the Celtic guy, I thought he was brought in for this exact purpose. Fuck knows, if I was the club right now I’d be seeking out Carr’s number… Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom1988 Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 If we're getting knocked back by clubs left, right and centre which appears to be the case then why aren't we just focusing on players with a release clause - it worked with Wood. Pretty much every player in Spain has one in their contract as far as I'm aware, in the interest of urgency just pay the price, get the lad in and start improving the team! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Just now, ManDoon said: What does this even mean lol. Without access to the list 4/5th choice players how would that even make sense? Why does a 5m player have to be a 5th choice. It’s not even remotely unreasonable to expect a PL club to be able to identify players. This is just the “well Mbappe doesn’t wanna come!” Argument reframed. It really isn't. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HTT II Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) 5 minutes ago, ManDoon said: If anyone can make a cogent argument that a) Kayembe wouldn’t immediately make us a better team and b) he wouldn’t sign for us, I’m all ears like. Anyone with mobility who can pass, move forward and generally not be as shit as Longstaff or Shelvey would improve us. I’m of the opinion that our new owners first and foremost haven’t really watched football that much or have ever been fans of the game and don’t realise that someone like the Watford new lad would improve us. It’s all agent driven and from agents we have no real contacts with. This is where Howe needs to step up and demand they turn their attention towards such players, even if they are from the Championship or Holland or fucking anywhere. We’ve fannied on trying to buy Botman, for the fee we have supposedly offered, no-one can tell me we couldn’t have bought two competent and better CB’s than what we currently have surely, even if unknown. Edited January 18, 2022 by HTT II Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmesy Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 We're getting knocked back by clubs, which isn't surprising given it's January and no one wants to lose their players. We're likely getting knocked back by plenty of players as well because we're pretty much certs. to go down. Absolute worst position we could be in Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manxst Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 1 minute ago, tom1988 said: If we're getting knocked back by clubs left, right and centre which appears to be the case then why aren't we just focusing on players with a release clause - it worked with Wood. Pretty much every player in Spain has one in their contract as far as I'm aware, in the interest of urgency just pay the price, get the lad in and start improving the team! Because those Spanish clauses are specifically designed to be so over the top in value in order for clubs not to be able to purchase the player? The players we will want will have super exorbitant prices that we simply wouldn’t pay. The players with the exorbitant clauses are the type that will be at CL clubs and may not want to come anyway. Because the club believes in not just throwing money at the problem as this will taint them for any future business. A whole multitude of reasons. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gallowgate Toon Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Kayembe has played one game and may turn out to be absolute shite. Playing well against us isn't really a high bar. Granted, point still stands that we don't need superstars right now. There are plenty of good players out there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HTT II Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 I don’t want to bring Rafa into things, but if he was still our manager, I guarantee with his contacts we’d have signed the players in the positions needed by now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 8 minutes ago, ManDoon said: Wtf happened with the Celtic guy, I thought he was brought in for this exact purpose. He’s supposedly terrible at his job so would explain a few things. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 7 minutes ago, ManDoon said: If anyone can make a cogent argument that a) Kayembe wouldn’t immediately make us a better team and b) he wouldn’t sign for us, I’m all ears like. I can't say I've watched much Eupen or Belgian League generally like, I bet 95% of fans haven't either. Perhaps Watford have scouts there and we don't? Perhaps we do but it was felt he wouldn't improve the side sufficiently and we prefer an alternative target? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
gjohnson Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 2 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said: He’s supposedly terrible at his job so would explain a few things. I thought it was pretty well known that he'd already left, and was only here to show how a transfer worked? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HTT II Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) 4 minutes ago, Gallowgate Toon said: Kayembe has played one game and may turn out to be absolute shite. Playing well against us isn't really a high bar. Granted, point still stands that we don't need superstars right now. There are plenty of good players out there. For me, the point is for 4m, they identified a player who would or they hope will make them stronger and quickly. We could sign Botman tomorrow and he could be a disaster, it’s about not being blinkered by name, fees or whatever. We don’t have the scouting network to see past the obvious and we are basically, IMO, targeting players agents have come to us about more than we have. Trippier and Wood were more Howe driven and Wood only a result because we have a contact in the agent who revealed his release clause. Whatever anyone thinks of Wood, from that POV it’s good business and we acted and got the deal done quick. That’s what’s needed more of! Edited January 18, 2022 by HTT II Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Holmesy Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 2 minutes ago, HTT II said: Anyone with mobility who can pass, move forward and generally not be as shit as Longstaff or Shelvey would improve us. I’m of the opinion that our new owners first and foremost haven’t really watched football that much or have ever been fans of the game and don’t realise that someone like the Watford new lad would improve us. It’s all agent driven and from agents we have no real contacts with. This is where Howe needs to step up and demand they turn their attention towards such players, even if they are from the Championship or Holland or fucking anywhere. We’ve fannied on trying to buy Botman, for the fee we have supposedly offered, no-one can tell me we couldn’t have bought two competent and better CB’s than what we currently have surely, even if unknown. Our lack of pace and movement in the centre is criminal. I bet Longstaff is in the top 5 slowest CMs in the league. Just a bit of pace and dynamism in the CM area would improve us immeasurably. They don't even have to be very good, just mobile Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skeletor Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 29 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said: Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hanshithispantz Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 25 minutes ago, The Prophet said: I'd bet there's a correlation between fans who are apparently happy for us to go down to our 4th/5th choices in order to get bodies in before Leeds and those that aren't satisfied with Chris Wood. It's just a hunch though. It's not just about getting boddies in before Leeds. There's no reason we cannot be doing deals early in the window. For big money signings like Botman, fair enough, there's going to be resistance from the selling club, if the player is worth it play the game and get him at the end of the window. For the thousands of other players out there who we could be getting for £5-10m on low wages though there's really no need. Before spending £25m on Wood (who was a huge risk in himself given his form) we absolutely could have signed a player for pennies, that with some good scouting, would be of a similar risk. He might work he might not... You can apply that to any position on the pitch. We just don't have the capability of finding them it seems. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRon Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 5 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said: It's not just about getting boddies in before Leeds. There's no reason we cannot be doing deals early in the window. For big money signings like Botman, fair enough, there's going to be resistance from the selling club, if the player is worth it play the game and get him at the end of the window. For the thousands of other players out there who we could be getting for £5-10m on low wages though there's really no need. Before spending £25m on Wood (who was a huge risk in himself given his form) we absolutely could have signed a player for pennies, that with some good scouting, would be of a similar risk. He might work he might not... You can apply that to any position on the pitch. We just don't have the capability of finding them it seems. I'm surprised we've identified the players we have tbh, the owners walked into a shell of a club with no infrastructure. I think this was inevitable to some extent, I mean we literally only had Charnley running the place previously. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
54 Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 I'm not really a fan of the argument of "X club got X player in, so why havent we" it always seems like such a pointless argument to make, clubs have different setups, different scouting, and different ways of working, one random player who has come in to another club doesn't make the work we're trying to do null and void, even if they'd improve our squad. This is especially true when January is a notoriously hard time to do business, other then ourselves, Watford, and Villa there hasnt really been any transfers going on, and its always been a month where most of the business gets done at the back end of the month. Clubs also know our position, know where desperate, and that we have a load of money so are more likely to drag their feet, we're in a really tricky position right now, and which makes things even harder. The club have been very open and honest with the fact they know they have to do deals, and have already got two players in that have improved us, so while it may not be the smoothest of situations, they know what needs to be done, and are trying their hardest to get them done, which is the polar opposite to anything we've had for 14 years. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackie Broon Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 26 minutes ago, Holmesy said: Our lack of pace and movement in the centre is criminal. I bet Longstaff is in the top 5 slowest CMs in the league. Just a bit of pace and dynamism in the CM area would improve us immeasurably. They don't even have to be very good, just mobile I think we need more than than just mobility, Willock is mobile. But one or more new central midfield players are absolutely essential. If we can't win and keep the ball in midfield it doesn't matter how good our defenders and attackers are. Maybe there are other targets being worked on that we don't know about but it's concerning how few solid links there have been to central midfield players. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awaymag Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) we need a DM that can break up play of the opponent, sit in front of our defence and give them some rest bite. We also need a AM that can push us forward and play intelligent through balls to wingers or striker. We could get away with 2 DMs this window and rely on the wingers for attacking. Either way we have to gain control of midfield as we never do at the moment Edited January 18, 2022 by Awaymag Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest reefatoon Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 So, incoming midfielders ........... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Prophet Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 3 minutes ago, ManDoon said: I feel like players just walk through our midfield constantly, (Joe aside) and even if we win the ball we lose it so quickly. They do, we're far too easy to play through. I'll be as disappointed as anyone if the midfield hasn't been reinforced come February 1st. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stal Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 59 minutes ago, SUPERTOON said: edwards is blatently making this up. Oh for sure we are talking to Carlos so there's some truth there (which everyone knows already) but the other "can't get a name" is just utter bollocks to try and make it sound like he knows something. Then he dives in with some more wankpheasantry by saying the team has been drilled badly by Rafa for so long, eagerly inviting the bruce comments like the slavering balloon faced shitgoblin that he is. He is just an awful shell of a supposed journalist. I very much dislike him now. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest HTT II Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 (edited) 29 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said: It's not just about getting boddies in before Leeds. There's no reason we cannot be doing deals early in the window. For big money signings like Botman, fair enough, there's going to be resistance from the selling club, if the player is worth it play the game and get him at the end of the window. For the thousands of other players out there who we could be getting for £5-10m on low wages though there's really no need. Before spending £25m on Wood (who was a huge risk in himself given his form) we absolutely could have signed a player for pennies, that with some good scouting, would be of a similar risk. He might work he might not... You can apply that to any position on the pitch. We just don't have the capability of finding them it seems. There’s loads of factors of course, clubs unwilling to sell in January, our league position, going after bigger names or established players, but fundamentally for me, and again I’m going to use Rafa, it’s down to contacts. We simply lack any real scouting network, relationships with agents and also and it’s important, lack the structure to organise a clear recruitment strategy in a window that is open for just one month. This is where the new owners may end up kicking themselves because if you want to wait for the best possible DOF or whatever, use people close to the club to get some contacts in your book like Carr, even Rafa, pick the phone up to him right now and if you have to pay them a commission do so. This is where Howe needs to step up too, which I think he has to be fair with Trippier and Wood, but I feel he lacks any real clout in the world of agents, scouts and player knowledge outside of the more known names or those in the U.K. hence Trippier and Wood! Edited January 18, 2022 by HTT II Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPERTOON Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 2 minutes ago, ManDoon said: It did strike me as odd. How would he know that we were close to another without knowing a name? “Yes we are close to signing someone, his name? Well I will let you figure that out ?” He’s not implying Carlos could be smokescreen for someone else. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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